There was a time that folks held one job for their entire lives. They specialized: If you were a blacksmith or a nurse or an auto assembly line worker or an accountant, that worked—for years. But as our creative (read: flexible yet less dependable) economy has developed, so have a lot of us. We’ve become free agents forging our own "portfolio career," as writers and actors have always done. We work for two or more different employers or a part-time job and business on the side, or manage a combination of irons in the fire.
Sound familiar? If you have portfolio career, like me, you may relate to labels of “time hacker” or “slasher” (reporter/photographer/teacher). Your career involves multiple identities, and can be hard to describe at parties and on
It’s not for everyone
I don’t have to tell you about the challenges inherent in this kind of hand-built life. Your schedule varies dramatically every day, every week and every month. Cash flow becomes a constant obsession, given your irregular income. And your varied workflow can make planning your days tricky, at best. Shifting gears is distracting.
Slashers need mad skills, too. You’ll want to be able to compartmentalize your time. Multitasking and time management are essential. If you’re disorganized or closed to new opportunities, forget about it.
If the shoe fits
But if you’ve “gone portfolio” and get it, you don’t ask whether it’s worth the inevitable headaches; you focus on how to work smarter to avoid them. You can’t imagine life without the upsides, which economist and management writer Charles Handy, who popularized the idea, described in his book The Empty Raincoat:
Going portfolio means exchanging full-time employment for independence… I told my children when they were leaving education that they would be well advised to look for customers not bosses… They have “gone portfolio” out of choice, for a time. Others are forced into it, when they get pushed outside by their organisation. If they are lucky, their old organisation will be the first client in their new portfolio. The important difference is that the price-tag now goes on their produce, not their time.
You may never go back
And that’s not all! Variety rules: You’ll rarely do the same thing day in and day out. Some experts contend you’ll earn more money when you control your work (more on that later). Your custom career reflects your interests and strengths, while you collect transferrable skills that bolster your resume. You’ll find comfort in a new safety net against job loss; you’ll never be laid off again. It’s simply easier to find and maintain a portfolio career than a single-track job.
Maybe that's why a new report by outsourcing and consulting group Kelly Services estimates that 20% to 30% of the entire global workforce could be free agents. This year, workers like us will number 1.19 billion, or closer to 35% of the worldwide workforce. “For the first time in the human experience, we have a chance to shape our work to suit the way we live instead of our lives to fit our work. We would be mad to miss the chance,” Handy says. Join us, already.
